Safety systems for automotive vehicles provide both passive and active protection to seated passengers in both front and rear seats. The effectiveness of these systems depends on several factors, including the type of seated passenger. In rear seats, some passengers are adults while some are children. Of the children, some may be positioned in a child restraint system (CRS) while others may be positioned in a booster seat. The ideal safety system would be tailored to discern between these passengers and, in the case of children, their type of seating.
It is recommended that children occupy rear seats up to a certain point, thus improvements are desired to identification systems for rear seats. However, such improvements could be applied to front seat classification as well. Such features may also add additional confidence or granularity to current classification methods in combination with other existing systems, or perhaps as an alternative to those systems, depending on the final execution.
Accordingly, providing a safety system that is capable of distinguishing between three conditions—a seated adult vs. a seated child and, if a child, a child seated in a CRS vs. a child seated in a booster seat—is desired.